“…AND HEAVENLY FREEDOM SPREAD HER GOLDEN RAY”: The Revolutionary War Poetry of PHILLIS WHEATLEY PETERS.

1
An engraving (here subsequently and in our time
tinted) of Wheatley-Peters, believed to be by fellow
African-American (and Bostonian) Scipio Moorhead,
and that appeared in the 1773 edition of her verse.
“…AND HEAVENLY FREEDOM SPREAD HER GOLDEN RAY”:
The Revolutionary War Poetry of PHILLIS WHEATLEY PETERS.
The girl who was to become Phillis Wheatley Peters1 first arrived at 7 years old on a slave ship
from Africa, and was purchased at a Boson slave auction by Susannah Wheatley, wife of John Wheatley a
well-to-do Boston tailor. When Mrs. Wheatley saw Phillis’ interest in writing she encouraged it, and sough
to provided her with a quality religious and literary education. On Sarah’s death in 1773, Phillis, at 20 years
of age, was emancipated; had by that time had become something of a local sensation for her writing
ability, and in the same year, under sponsorship of the Wheatleys, published her first volume of poetry.
Living where she did, what might have been her thoughts and feelings, one wonders, regarding events such
as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill – which latter she
very likely was able to view from a distance?
She was not the first African-American poet of note, sharing honors as she did for that title with
Jupiter Hammon (1711-1806)2 and Lucy Terry (c.1730-1821)3; yet of the three she was most certainly the
most well-known. Benson J. Lossing for instance, saw fit to write a sympathetic and dignified...

“…AND HEAVENLY FREEDOM SPREAD HER GOLDEN RAY”: The Revolutionary War Poetry of PHILLIS WHEATLEY PETERS.

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